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Use of Voice-Activated Digital Assistants for Medication Information Dissemination: A Mixed-Methods Evaluation of Accuracy, Safety and Patient Knowledge Outcomes

Research articleOpen accessVol. 15, Issue 8, July 2026

  • Dr. Amit NampalliwarReader & HOD,, Department of Roga Nidan & Vikriti Vigyana (Pathology),, Government Ayurved College & Hospital,, Bilaspur (C.G.)-495001, India., Orcid Id : https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6587-5735
Published
31 July 2026
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CC BY 4.0
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Abstract

— Voice-activated digital assistants (VADAs) are increasingly used as first-line sources of medication information, yet evidence on their accuracy and downstream patient outcomes remains fragmented. This study evaluated four voice platforms — Amazon Alexa, Apple Siri, Google Assistant and a retrieval-augmented custom medication skill (MedVoice) — across 240 standardised medication queries per platform, and then tested a twelve-week deployment among 168 ambulatory patients. Platform accuracy ranged from 61.7% to 88.3%, and potentially harmful responses ranged from 8.3% to 1.7%. In the deployment phase, the VADA group gained 5.1 points on a 20-point medication knowledge scale against 1.3 points for leaflet-based controls (mean difference 3.6, 95% CI 2.81–4.39, p < .001). High adherence was recorded in 72.6% of VADA users versus 50.0% of controls (OR 2.65). Mean query resolution time fell from 168.3 to 42.6 seconds. Findings indicate that curated, retrieval-grounded voice channels — not general-purpose assistants — are suitable for medication information dissemination.

Keywords: — voice-activated digital assistant; medication information; patient safety; medication adherence; conversational agents; health literacy

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How to cite

Dr. Amit Nampalliwar (2026). Use of Voice-Activated Digital Assistants for Medication Information Dissemination: A Mixed-Methods Evaluation of Accuracy, Safety and Patient Knowledge Outcomes. International Journal for Research in Management & Pharmacy, 15(8).

Licence

This article is open access, published under the CC BY 4.0 licence. Copyright remains with the authors.